He then gives strict orders to his people
not to say anything of it to the minister.
I was told these and other things by a very trustworthy person, and
they may serve to give my readers some slight idea of the system of
government in Persia.
I was presented to the viceroy a few days after my arrival. I was
conducted one afternoon by Dr. Cassolani to one of the royal summer-
houses. The house was situated in a small garden, which was
surrounded by another larger one, both enclosed by very high walls.
In the outer garden there were, besides meadows and fruit trees,
nothing deserving of much notice, except a number of tents, in which
the military were encamped. The soldiers wore the usual Persian
dress, with the single exception that the officers on duty had a
sword, and the soldiers a musket. They only appear in uniform on
the most rare occasions, and then they are, in some respects, like
European soldiers.
Several eunuchs received us at the entrance of the small garden.
They conducted us to an unpretending looking house, one story high,
at the end of a field of flowers. I should never have looked for
the country seat of the successor to the Persian throne in this
house; but such it was.
